Sink differences: Kalyan to partymen

FORMER CHIEF minister and national vice-president of the BJP Kalyan Singh called upon the party workers to sink differences and get ready for the coming Vidhan Sabha elections.

indiaUpdated: Apr 06, 2006 01:06 IST

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FORMER CHIEF minister and national vice-president of the BJP Kalyan Singh called upon the party workers to sink differences and get ready for the coming Vidhan Sabha elections.

Addressing the concluding session of the two-day state working committee meeting here on Wednesday, Singh said that an independent candidate supported by the opposition should be fielded against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in Rae Bareli.

Hurt by the factionalism within the party, Singh said the ‘party with a difference’ was now being discussed as ‘party with differences’.

He claimed that everything was in favour of the BJP, and there was no need to be disappointed.

He further said, “Every party worker is a leader in his own field while every leader is a party worker.”

He said party nominees for all the 403 the Vidhan Sabha seats should be decided at the earliest followed by the booth management exercise.

Indiscipline would not be tolerated and those suspended from the party for anti-party activities would not be taken back, he said.

The former CM demanded amendment to the Constitution for including right to work as fundamental right. Favouring 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, Singh said the party should give ticket to at least one ‘winnable’ woman candidate in every district in the coming Vidhan Sabha election.

The BJP had not dropped the main issues from its agenda and the party would go to the people with the issue of Ram Janmbhumi Temple, scrapping of the Article 370 and Common Civil Code, he said.

Singh condemned the Congress-led Centre for various decisions, including Muslim census in the Army and religion-based reservation in educational institutions.

Regretting the experiences of forming the government with Mayawati, Singh said that he was against the alliance with the BSP. “If the BJP fails to get the majority, it will play the role of an active opposition,” he said. He said the party had the responsibility to end the prevailing lawlessness, criminalisation of politics and corruption.

Singh alleged that the SP and the Congress were hand in glove and regretted that the Congress had to depend on a ‘foreigner’. Former state BJP president Kalraj Mishra said prevailing situation was a challenge to the party and urged the workers to highlight failures of the govt.

He accused the media of planting stories and quoted an incident in which a Hindi daily reported that he had a discussion with Amar Singh about a joint BJP-SP strategy to defeat Mayawati. However, the fact was that he and Singh were on the same flight from Jaipur to Delhi and had exchanged pleasantries.Political and economic resolutions were passed at the meeting. The party expressed serious concern over the State Government’s appeasement policy, lawlessness, the farmers’ problems and price rise in its resolutions.